A Chicago man is facing charges of interfering with a flight crew after allegedly groping a pregnant woman on an airplane and intimidating flight attendants.

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Denver, Marcus Covington, who was born in 1979, also made bizarre statements to fellow passengers and spit at and threatened to kill police officers after being taken off the plane late Sunday. The JetBlue flight, which left New York bound for Los Angeles and was carrying 150 passengers, had to be diverted to Denver because of the disruption.

According to the complaint, Covington appeared drunk and first began making other passengers nervous when he left his seat and began saying nonsensical things. At one point, he groped a 27-year-old pregnant woman who was waiting to use the bathroom at the front of the plane, according to the complaint. The woman pushed him away and moved behind a flight attendant, before escaping into the bathroom, where she said she started crying.

A flight attendant then told Covington to sit down, but he told her to get away from him, according to the complaint. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who happened to be a passenger on the plane then sat next to Covington, along with a passenger identified in the complaint as “C.E.”

That passenger appears to be independent movie producer Cassian Elwes, who tweeted an account of his experience with a man who identified himself to Elwes as “Marco.”

Elwes wrote that Marco said he was a Marine with a history of drug problems and violent encounters who grew up in New York. The man said he was going to Los Angeles to work construction on a commercial shoot. Elwes wrote that the man popped several green pills that Elwes and another passenger later identified as drugs to treat bi-polar disorder.

When the flight landed in Denver, Elwes wrote that Marco pleaded for Elwes not to forget about him, then punched Elwes in the ribs and thigh. He also left Elwes a note that read, “We all love the ones we hate. Blood. Lust. I was born in queens. We all lose hope,” Elwes wrote on Twitter.

The last time Elwes saw Marco, Elwes wrote, was when Denver police were leading him up the jetway with a blue, mesh hood over his head, apparently to prevent him from spitting.

Asked to fill out a statement on the incident, Elwes said: “I write that I used to be william morris agent and I’ve dealt with difficult people before and really this guy wasn’t that difficult.”

Covington could face as much as 20 years in prison if convicted of interference with a flight crew.

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